The invention relates to an adjustable grill for use in an outdoor cooking device such as a roaster or large oven that may be gas, charcoal, wood or mesquite fired.
The invention is particularly suited to large volume cooking devices in which the firebox is appropriately sized to accommodate a heat source beneath a grill having an expansive cooking surface of up to about ten square and larger. With this size, a significant amount of food may be cooked, such as required for a group or club picnic and the like.
Due to the wide variety of foods to be cooked, and the requirement for different heating of these items, it has been very advantageous to provide adjustability to the grill relative to the fire bed in order to dispose the food items at the appropriate elevation over the fire.
In the past, the adjustment to these large grills has taken the form of vertical adjustment means which may either utilize spaced apart slots, or handle slide tracks, which permit two people to stand at opposite ends of the cooking device and arrange the grill at an appropriate level.
Certain smaller sized "backyard-type" cooking grills have also provided a grill that, in addition to vertical adjustment, allows for the pivoting of the grill so that it remains held by the cooking device in an open position allowing the user to restoke the charcoal, or the like, contained in the firebox.
It has been found that in conjunction with the foregoing adjustability of known grills, a further advantage would be to provide a grill that is slant adjustable so that certain items may be held at one level above the fire bed while others are placed at a different levels. This would be important when, for example, rare steaks are to be cooked along with well-done steaks. Additionally, should a certain portion of the food become ready to eat, it would be a benefit to allow it to be placed at a higher elevation above the fire bed and kept warm, while other steaks or hamburgers may be placed closer to the fire in order to cook them in sequence. Coupled with the foregoing advantages, it has also been learned that the various adjustments set forth above would be particularly helpful if they could be accomplished while a lid or cover is arranged over the firebox. This additional feature would eliminate the need for the chef to open the lid and release the heated gases surrounding the food items. Such would be the case when large fowl is being cooked where it is important to maintain a high constant temperature throughout cooking. Thus, the ability to vertically adjust and slant adjust a grill from the exterior of a closed cooking device would significantly advance the art of large volume outdoor cooking.
The foregoing needs have been satisfied by the present invention in which a wide variety of cooking devices may be provided with the novel slant adjustable grill described hereinafter.
In brief summary, the invention may be described as a plated grill having longitudinal grill members transversely crossed thereunder by spaced apart support rods. The grill is preferably rectangular in form and the long sides of the rectangular shape may be provided with support channels for rigidity and sturdiness. Projecting from opposite ends of the grill, are handle means which extend outwardly of the ends of the firebox and include two parallel extending arms integrally formed with a transverse handle for gripping and maneuvering the grill. Each handle means thereby has a front and rear extending arm. The front extending arms and the rear extending arms are coaxial. The extending arms are cooperative with grill support panels mounted at opposite ends of the firebox whereby the operator may adjust the grill in the vertical direction, pivot it away from the firebox for allowing access to the heat source, or slant adjust the grill to dispose the grill either at a left/right slant, or a transverse front/back slant.
When utilizing a cover, such as a domed lid over the firebox, the adjustability is further enhanced by the provision of cooperative and particularly formed lid access cut-outs allowing the user to manipulate the position of the extending arms of the handles at both sides of the cooking device in order to permit the vertical or slant adjustment to be made while the lid remains closed over the grill.
The grill support panels are each provided with two vertical rows of downwardly slanting notches. Preferably, the two rows of notches at each grill support panel are comprised of four horizontally co-planar cooresponding notches. One row of notches is formed at a front vertical edge of the support panel and is frontwardly open. The second row of notches is formed along the panel and is frontwardly defined by a vertical interior edge portion of the panel creating a passage in front of the slots. The front and rear notches of the two panels are arranged in two parallel vertical planes, and the two rows of notches of each panel are spaced apart substantially at the same width as the spacing of the two extending arms of the handle means arrangeable at the respective ends of the cooking device. The arrangement allows for all the extending arms of the handle means to be in a plurality of horizontal planes--all being parallel to the fire bed. The grill may also be slant adjusted whereby the extending arms at one support panel are positioned at the same notch elevation while the extending arms at the other support panel are at a lower or higher notch elevation. This last feature provides for a left/right slant adjustment to the grill. Additionally, the front extending arms of both of the handle means may be inserted into horizontally corresponding front notches at each panel while the rear extending arms of each handle means may be inserted at a higher or lower horizontally corresponding rear notches at each panel. Thereby a front/back slant adjustment may be obtained. The grill further may be pivoted around the axis of the two rear extending arms upons their engagement with the topmost notch at each said panel, whereby to allow the grill to be opened away from the fire bed. The grill may then be fully rotated to be supportively rested against a back wall of the firebox.